How will Wiggins change this franchise?

If by any stroke of luck (and lots of tanking) the Raptors land Wiggins, how much do you think it will impact basketball in Canada?

Bigger than Nash playing in Toronto?
Bigger than VC?
Will superstars come flocking to join him here?
Will MLSE give in and shell out money to acquire every possible talent to surround Wiggins with?
Will JV, DD, Wiggins, Ed and Lowry be good enough to make the team a contender?

I hate the idea of thinking 'what if we draft a certain player', especially a couple years in advance. I get that Raptors fans want something to be excited about, but nothing good can come from that line of thinking. The odds against it are ridiculous. We'd need Raptors management to basically agree to waste next year, after a full wasted year this year, and then we'd need to actually win the lottery, which are unlikely odds even for the worst team. That said, I'm all for Raptors trading assets for multiple 2014 draft picks, because that's a solid rebuilding strategy regardless of the odds of getting the 1st overall pick.

I'm really excited that the guy's Canadian, and I hope that he'll continue to be enthusiastic about representing his country internationally, and that the rest of our young NBAers will want to play on the national team just to play along side him. But imagining his impact on team Canada (which he's already a part of) is much more realistic than imagining his impact on the Raptors.

I hate the idea of thinking 'what if we draft a certain player', especially a couple years in advance. I get that Raptors fans want something to be excited about, but nothing good can come from that line of thinking. The odds against it are ridiculous. We'd need Raptors management to basically agree to waste next year, after a full wasted year this year, and then we'd need to actually win the lottery, which are unlikely odds even for the worst team. That said, I'm all for Raptors trading assets for multiple 2014 draft picks, because that's a solid rebuilding strategy regardless of the odds of getting the 1st overall pick.

I'm really excited that the guy's Canadian, and I hope that he'll continue to be enthusiastic about representing his country internationally, and that the rest of our young NBAers will want to play on the national team just to play along side him. But imagining his impact on team Canada (which he's already a part of) is much more realistic than imagining his impact on the Raptors.

well the draft is rigged. Chicago comes out of no mans land to get their home grown Derrick Rose, the LA Clippers pick that was traded to Cleveland and had the 10th best chance of getting #1 ends up going to Cleveland the year after Lebron left (so Cleveland got the two top picks after they were royalled screwed over) and then this last year the NBA owned team that wanted to sell to a new owner just happened to get the #1 pick. I can only imagine the conversation as the NBA tried to sell it "sure i'll buy it from you but I want to be guaranteed Anthony Davis".

So Wiggins is projected to be #1 in 2014. The NBA likes to give back to the screwed and the home towns. Toronto is both in this category. As long as he pans out at college, I dont see the raptors not getting him (unless they lose their draft pick)

A better to question to ask (and this isn't intended to be snarky or anything) is how can the 2014 draft in general help the Raps. With so much talent available at a position of need for the Raps, finding a gem would go a long way toward dragging them out of this abyss they're in, and finding a way to double up on top-10 picks to grab a second player would be HUGE.

As for Wiggins, the kid has the potential for sure, and even if he can't bring the team a championship himself, he would do the team an enormous service if he could get them back to respectability and help to start attracting big names to the franchise.

Let’s be careful, too narrow a focus could make us miss other talent in that draft. I'm down with Wiggins if he is available, but hype does not always last and it’s possible that other interesting players emerge and could be missed by over fascination.

I want the best player we can get with our pick, if we have one. Not necessarily a guy from Toronto. I also think that by that time our talent will mature enough that we can easily put together a package for Wiggins if MLSE is convinced he is worth the hype, but this is the part that is dangerous, one can easily lose in such a transaction if you are too narrowly focused.

Not gonna happen. If the Raps are primed to he a playoff team next year, they won't have a chance for luck with the lottery balls. I don't see Bargnani or even DeRozan landing a 1st round pick from a likely lottery team, given the loaded draft in 2014.